Boehner presses White House for spending cuts

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — House Speaker John Boehner pressed the White House Thursday for spending-cut proposals, resisting a request to give President Barack Obama unlimited authority to increase the debt ceiling.

“The president wants to pretend spending isn’t the problem. That’s why we don’t have an agreement,” he said, pointing to a chart prepared by House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan on projected spending, with the Twitter hashtag #spendingistheproblem.

Reuters

House Speaker John Boehner presents a chart at the Capitol in Washington.

The news conference from the top Republican negotiator indicated that significant differences remain between the two parties over crafting a deal to avert the fiscal cliff — the series of tax hikes and spending cuts amounting to at least $500 billion that will hit the U.S. economy starting next year.

However, Boehner didn’t say that differences on revenue were holding up a deal — possibly because there’s an agreement there, or because he may not want to highlight this part of the negotiations.

The House Republicans and the White House have traded at least two proposals to avert the fiscal cliff. Boehner on Thursday called the Republican offer “reasonable.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney, in a daily briefing, wasn’t as positive on the Boehner proposal, noting it was only half a page in length.

“The parameters of an agreement are clear, they are not that complicated...and we look forward to the time when Republicans acknowledge that revenues not only have to be a part of the equation, but that rates on top earners have to go up as part of the revenue equation. When that happens, we believe we can reach a deal fairly quickly,” Carney said.

Boehner meanwhile sidestepped a question about whether he would permit a Senate bill that would extend current levels of taxation for 98% of Americans to get to the floor.

Boehner pointedly rejected a White House call for the president to have unlimited power to increase the debt ceiling. He said there was no way then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Harry Reid would have agreed to such a demand under former President George W. Bush.

“The debt limit ought to be used to restore fiscal sanity,” the speaker added.

At a separate news conference, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she wasn’t worried that Obama would press for deeper entitlement cuts than she’d like to see. See video on Pelosi’s comments

“The speaker may need our votes to go forward,” she commented.

Another key Democrat, Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, told reporters that he’s been told the White House won’t increase the eligibility age for Medicare, according to the Associated Press.

Obama, for his part, is due to give a series of interviews to local-television stations.

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